The first Warrior King (2005) movie was a great and brutal follow up to Ong Bak (2003). Its finale featured an amazing five minute unbroken shot of its lead Tony Jaa rampaging through a never-ending stream of bad guys in order to reach his pet elephant. This was ruined in the final minutes when said elephant was grabbed and swung by a guy with serious roid rage through a window. Seriously, it ruined the film for me as it was so out of place and simply ridiculous.
I was initially hoping that the follow up wasn’t as ludicrous.
Before I get into my review I have to say that Tony Jaa is one of the best martial artists ever seen on film and I truly believe he could have taken Bruce Lee’s crown if he had got into Hollywood. Despite this he has only done a few films and has been away for quite a while, so I was expecting this return to be something in the vein of Ong Bak or Warrior King, but I was very wrong to assume so.
This is a tough review to do as there is no way I can do it without spoilers, so you have been warned. The basic story has modest farmer Kham (Jaa) trying to get his elephant Khon back when he refuses to sell it to a trader, which isn’t that fun when you think about it.
The trader plans to sell the elephant to gangster LC (RZA) for unknown reasons and when Khon goes missing Kham fights his way into the trader’s home to find him dead just as his ass kicking nieces Sue-sue and Ping-ping arrive, and assume that Kham killed him. While escaping. Kham runs into his old friend and comic relief Sargent Mark (Petchtai Wongkamlao) who informs him of an international terrorist plot to disrupt peace talks in Bangkok.
Still with me? We also have an underground army of fighters lead by LC, double crossings, mind control drugs, averting an international war, a deadly side quest and some ridiculous set pieces.
Whatever you say about this film it sure is imaginative.
The film starts fairly seriously in tone but by the time we get to a rooftop Jaa vs motorbike gang fight I realised that this film didn’t take itself seriously, and all for the better. It’s a funny action flick but not in the same vein as Jackie Chan films. I think its best described as Thai crazy’. Anyone who’s been to Thailand will know exactly what I mean.
As I suspected while watching, this film was shot in 3D, which I wouldn’t mind seeing especially for the finale. I should state that this film uses a lot of CGI and green screen, which at first I though was sacrilege and distracting as I’m used to seeing stunts in this type of film being performed naturally, but this CGI just ads to the cartoon-esque nature of the film, its plot and the violence.
Thankfully, we have the trademark action replays’ of some unbelievable moves, showing you how dangerous some of the stunts are and just how skilled the fighters are. We have slow motion impact shots and a great use of POV in one particular scene. Make no mistake that these are trained professionals who get hurt a lot for our entertainment.
With most martial arts films our protagonist has to fight his way to the big boss and backgrounds / arenas to these fights are as if their straight from computer games: a dockyard, a flaming warehouse which introduces us to flaming kicks to the face, and an underground train station where are fighters have wet feet on the tracks, hence electric kicks and punches which use the same sound effects as lightsabers)! As I’ve said, it’s Thai crazy’.
The sound track is a mix of cheesy synths and typical hard and heavy fight music, but it fits perfectly within this crazy film. I know that the majority of the dialogue was translated but we get typical cheese such as: “If you want to help then don’t stand in my way and my favourite shout; “KHONNNN! ala Star Trek, or Jaa Trek if you will. The rest seems to be alright except for the accent of a certain Interpol agent which really sticks out.
This brings me to the cast. RZA’s acting skills have improved since The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), although he mainly plays a stereotypical gangster complete with gold toothpick. However some of his mean’ faces are pure comedy gold. Petchtai Wongkamlao makes a welcome return as the bumbling Sargent Mark although I feel he is underused throughout, but thankfully saved for the end.
But the star of the show is Tony Jaa whose skills are amazing. Although not as astounding as when you first saw him in Ong Bak (2003), he is now a better actor and still has the moves to inflict some wince worthy damage to foes. If the rumours of him playing the bad guy in The Raid 3 are true then we’re in for a treat and I can’t wait, if not then can we have him in a future Expendables film?
Special features wise we have Cast and Crew Interviews where they talk about each other, the use of 3D, the twisty script and that astonishingly, the 20 minute motorbike scene took 8 months to shoot! All these are very jerkily edited as if they had to fit as much into it 30 min runtime as possible. The producer says that they done the best they could so the audience would enjoy it and have fun. I’d say they were successful.
We also get a 10 minute Behind the Scenes covering various action sequences which is fairly interesting but makes you realise that these guys had some long days.
Overall Verdict: If you’re expecting The Raid (2011) or Ong Bak (2003) then this isn’t it. It kicks ass and is thoroughly entertaining throughout and just gets sillier. It is however hard to score. Compared to a normal film it’s a 2. As a fun and carefree action romp it’s a 5. It’s unbelievably entertaining but not in a Michael Bay way. It’s playful, is stupid, knows it is, and just goes with it. I think this is a rare case in which a sequel is better than its predecessor. It’s the best bad film I’ve seen in a while. And that’s what makes it great.
Reviewer: George Elcombe
War